A super moist, rich, simple, one layer carrot cake recipe made from scratch with chopped pecans and topped with cream cheese frosting. This is great for Easter or to celebrate your favorite carrot cake loving person in your life!

Happy Friday to all! We finally made it through the week and I’m looking forward to the weekend like it’s nobody’s business. We are going kayaking with some friends on the bay later on and it’s supposed to be a beautiful day so I’m really excited. I haven’t been kayaking since last summer when we were in Syracuse visiting my brother and have missed it. What are your plans for the weekend? I absolutely ADORE a good, moist carrot cake and made one for the first time at home a couple of months back. Yes, I’ve been holding out on you with this wonderful carrot cake recipe and perfectly sweet cream cheese frosting. Call me weird, but I would pick a good ol’ carrot cake over almost any other kind of cake at any given time… including chocolate ::::gasp:::::! There I said it. I do have a sick obsession with desserts, in general, but every now and then I love to do some crazy thing like add vegetables to my baked goods. That’s the great thing about carrot cake….you can feel healthy eating it because carrots are so good for you Truly, it’s guilt free.

I love my carrot cake slightly on the denser side with a chockful of shredded carrots and chopped nuts and this cake gave me just that. As soon as I saw this recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction I knew that I would absolutely love this one! The addition of the Greek yogurt is fabulous: it adds a lot of moisture and prevents the cake from drying out.

It’s also simple to make for a cake that is made from scratch because it avoids all of the busy work of layering and frosting. You ONLY frost the top of this cake. Easy peasy! Have a great summer weekend!

A super moist, rich, simple, one layer carrot cake recipe made from scratch with chopped pecans and topped with cream cheese frosting. This is great for Easter or to celebrate your favorite carrot cake loving person in your life!

Ingredients

Carrot Cake

1 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed

¾ cup vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil, or canola oil)

¼ cup Greek yogurt (plain or vanilla)

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups very finely grated carrots

¾ cup pecan pieces

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature

½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Spray 9 or 10 inch springform pan well with nonstick cooking spray. (Don't use a regular circle or square pan, as the cake may rise above and make a mess of your oven). Set aside.

Take out the cream cheese to soften for the frosting if you haven't already done so.

Make the carrot cake: In a large bowl with a handheld or stand mixer on medium speed, combine the brown sugar and oil.

Beat in the yogurt until fully combined - about 60 seconds. Mixture will be gritty and thick.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Mix in the vanilla. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

With a spatula, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and all flour is incorporated into the mixture - do not overmix.

Fold in the finely shredded carrots and pecan pieces.

Pour into prepared springform pan.

Bake cake for 32-38 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake, which will dry out cake! Be careful to check the cake at 30 minutes, then again at 32. My cake took exactly 32 minutes.

Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting: beat the softened cream cheese and butter together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until soft, creamy, and thoroughly combined.

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Author:Ashley

These are a few of my favorite things: cooking, baking, Broadway musicals, cruises, Disney World, Christmas, storms, 80's and country music, and my favorite pastime has always been baseball. Go Yankees!

40 Responses to “Super Moist Carrot Cake”

I’m actually road tripping to the east coast with the family this weekend and for the next week! I’m really excited, since it’s been a while since we’ve been to the east (I’m a midwest-ie). By the way, I’m a big fan of carrot cake, so this cake looks delicious, Ashley! I’d love to try it out sometime (:

My husband and I are both crazy for carrot cakes! Our absolute favorite is the cream cheese frosting –YUMMY! Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I love that cute carrot in the middle –nice touch! Have a great time on your kayaking trip Ashley!

This carrot cake looks too good to be true! I’m not kidding, how can someone make something that looks this darn tasty and wonderful? And the Greek yogurt? That just seals the deal. I am very envious of whoever got to finish this baby off. Great post and beautiful pics!

Wow! I just adore carrot cake (my blog is only 6 months old, and I already have two on there…a Carrot Cake Cheesecake Cake and a Paleo Carrot Cake), but I never thought of adding Greek yogurt! Pure genius for a super-moist carrot cake, Ashley! Thanks for sharing and have fun kayaking this weekend!

kayaking sounds like fun! Enjoy the weather and have a great time! How could you hold off sharing this recipe for so long!!! I love carrot cakes too and can’t wait to try this one. Thank you for sharing it….finally. Have a wonderful weekend.

Ashley (ashley@wishesndishes.com)

These are a few of my favorite things: cooking, baking, Broadway musicals, cruises, Disney World, Christmas, storms, 80's and country music, and my favorite pastime has always been baseball. Go Yankees!